Morphine
The Best of Morphine 1992–1995

Of all the artists to emerge in the past decade, none have had quite the
unusual line-up and unique sound of Boston’s Morphine. The group was ultimately
a power trio, but instead of the usual guitar-drums-bass format, it featured
two-string bassist Mark Sandman, saxophone player Dana Colley, and drummer Billy
Conway (who replaced Jerome Dupree shortly after the release of the band’s first
album). Morphine’s style was a bit too strange for mainstream audiences, but
those looking for a different twist on the jazz and blues roots of rock ’n‘ roll
found the band to be a welcome change of pace. As a result, its audience
developed into a rather large and rabid, cult-like following, sizeable enough to
attract the attention of the Dreamworks label, which subsequently issued the
group’s final two albums.

Unfortunately, Sandman collapsed on stage in 1999 after suffering a heart
attack, which killed him at the age of 47, and as a result, he left behind only
five studio efforts and a collection of B-sides. Despite the exclusion of music
from Morphine’s final two outings, The Best of Morphine sufficiently sums
up the band’s Rykodisc era as well as its legacy, and augmented with three
previously unreleased tracks as well as a vinyl rarity, it offers a terrific
glimpse at a brilliant career. Combining the dark, literary edginess of both The
Doors and the Velvet Underground with the dirtiest blues and the hippest jazz,
Morphine turned the rock world upside-down and inside-out. The group grooves and
swings better than most jam bands, and despite the inherent limitations of its
sparse instrumentation, it pushes its often agitated music with grunge-like
intensity — all the while pulsing with more emotional resonance than most acts
could ever hope to muster.

The Best of Morphine 1992-1995 is available from Barnes & Noble.
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